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Libya Constituent Assembly elections

Elections were held on 20 February to Libya’s Constituent Assembly, which will have 120 days to draw up a new constitution, to be approved in a referendum.

20 members will be elected from each of Libya’s three regions: Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan. 6 seats are reserved for women and 2 each for the Tabu, Tawaregh and Amazigh ethnic groups; the Amazigh are boycotting the election and no nomination were made for their seats, so a total of 58 members will be elected.

from IFES it is clear that most members will be elected by FPTP, with some multimember SNTV districts. However, it is less clear how constituencies work, in particular the women’s seats:

“The Constituent Assembly will be elected in three regions – the East, West and South – and will be divided into 11 main constituencies. These main constituencies are further divided into 46 electoral constituencies with unique races. Within each of the 46 constituencies, there will be separate races for a defined number of seats.

Women will register to run in specific constituencies but will be elected to seats that cover multiple constituencies. Therefore, the seat she will occupy will not be pre-determined and could be taken from any of the constituencies covered. In total, there will be 51 different ballots.

…The race for women-only seats will take place in parallel with the general races. Thus, in constituencies with both a general and women’s race, voters will be given two ballots: one general ballot and one special ballot for the women’s race list. In these constituencies, voters mark their choice on each ballot.”

In any case an interesting electoral system for a constituent assembly. I had expected them to use PR of some sort, but they have instead opted for something resembling the nominal tier used in the 2012 election.